Free education

Nearly every country in the developed world, and more and more in the developing world, provide free primary and secondary education. Such education is generally uncontroversial and accepted as necessary around the world. In the case of secondary education, however, there is a great deal of disparity between countries’ education policies. In many states students must pay fees to access a school. Often states offer financial assistance to individuals who cannot afford to pay fees and lack other methods of payment.

In other states, education is completely free and considered a citizen’s right to attend. Debates center on the issues of whether there is in fact a right to education, and on whether states can feasibly afford to finance such education. POINT It is a fundamental right of individuals to experience primary and secondary school and to have access to the knowledge. Primary and secondary school offers a huge opportunity. It is a treasure of knowledge to be gained and experiences to be had. Primary and secondary school provides an opportunity that exists at no other time in n individual’s life.

It is a time of personal, intellectual, and often spiritual, exploration. In secondary school, no such opportunities exist, as they are about instruction and following orders, not about questioning norms and conventions in the same way primary and secondary school so often. Primary and secondary school serves as a valuable space for different views, which everyone has a right to experience should they wish. A life without thinking tools provided by primary and secondary school is less full because those without it lack the facility by which to nlock all the doors of perception and knowledge.

Primary and secondary school experience serves also individuals’ views of education and society, helping to give form to the relationship between citizen and state. The state has a duty to facilitate this development, as its responsibility includes providing citizens with the wherewithal to take meaningful part in the democratic process. A state can only truly be considered legitimate when an educated electorate approves it. Without a proper education, individuals cannot be effective citizens.

A primary and secondary school education in the modern world is essential to the development of such informed citizens. For this reason, free primary and secondary school is a great benefit to a citizen as an exploration for his own development on a personal level, and with his relation to society as a whole. Counterpoint There is no right to secondary school experience. Secondary school life is a piss-up. Students rarely take their time in secondary school some would suggest. Rather, secondary school life is about community first, education second.

Such education can provide valuable knowledge, but it is not the responsibility of the citizens. Self- knowledge and genuine wisdom come from study and reflection. This can be done anywhere, not Just in a secondary school. There is no fundamental right of individuals to be allowed to learn new skills that will benefit them or how to be better citizens. The state’s duty is to provide a baseline of care, which in the case of education secondary school more than provides. If individuals want more they should pay for it themselves.